Joanna Lumley: Children Are Being Raised With 'Slack Morals'

Joanna Lumley has hit out at British parenting and teaching skills, claiming our kids are being raised with 'slack morals'.

Speaking to the Radio Times, the 64-year-old actress blamed parents and teachers for children's behaviour, claiming in some cases they are allowed to misbehave and steal.

She said today's youngsters are not disciplined in the way children of her generation were:

'I was taught not to shoplift, not to steal, not to behave badly. We weren't even allowed to drop litter.

'We are very slack with our moral codes for children these days. ­Nowadays children find it laughably amusing to shoplift and steal.

'We smile when they download information from the internet and lazily present it as their own work. We allow them to bunk off school and bring in sick notes.'

She added kids needed greater responsibilities to encourage them to mature, saying: 'I have had the good fortune to travel widely and seen small children take on huge responsibilities.

'So in Ethiopia you might find a seven-year-old expected to take 15 goats out into the fields for the whole day with only his whistle and a ­chapati to eat. Why are we so afraid to give our children responsibilities like this?'

Miss Lumley also called for laptops to be banned from school, claiming: 'Until you can prove you can add up on your fingers or think independently in your head, you have learnt nothing.'